Xiaomi 14 Ultra hands-on preview

Presentation of the Xiaomi 14 Ultra

The Xiaomi Ultra series has been around for a few years now, shipping only to China. They're generally the pinnacle of Xiaomi smartphone photography – a full partnership with Leica for top-notch lens materials and expensive sensors underneath. The 14 Ultra comes with four different sensors on its main camera module, covering multiple focal lengths and use cases. Plus, it has a new professional-quality video app for the filmmaker in you.

What's new on Xiaomi 14 Ultra

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Xiaomi 14 Ultra specifications

Go out swinging

Aside from the main camera, which rocks a LYT-900, the other sensors in the main camera module are the Sony IMX858, ensuring similar quality when you change focal lengths. And, of course, we have LPDDR5X and UFS 4.0 storage to complement the blazing-fast Snapdragon 8 Gen 3.

Taking the design of the Xiaomi 13 Ultra, but refining it to a large extent — the Xiaomi 14 Ultra has a flat back, instead of a slope towards the side of the camera. It's covered in faux leather, which is soft and grippy to the touch, and definitely evokes the feel of camera gear.

The power button is etched with a very pronounced, hard-to-miss pattern, while the clickable volume rocker is smooth in contrast.

That camera bump on the back is pretty respectable, but we found that it doesn't add any weight imbalance to the device. In fact, it felt quite balanced, even somewhat lightweight, given the caliber of phone we were holding.

Xiaomi 14 Ultra screen

The screen glass has a curve on each side, perfectly symmetrical, even at the corners of the phone. However, it doesn't cut the screen image, it just helps it round and fit the aluminum frame perfectly.

It is an LTPO AMOLED panel with a refresh rate of 1-120 Hz and a resolution of 1440 x 3200 for a density of 522 pixels per inch. It looks sharp, clear and colorful. Xiaomi has declared a maximum brightness of 3,000 nits, which means that only one area of ​​the screen can reach this value, but the promised typical brightness of 1,000 nits should be sufficient for use in a bright environment. It also has DC dimming, so people sensitive to flicker when setting an OLED screen to low brightness shouldn't see or feel the strange vibrations here.

The glass panel is a new Xiaomi Shield Glass, developed to be more durable than previous iterations, the vegan leather on the back has strong wear resistance (and it doesn't feel fragile) and the phone is IP68 rated for the highest penetration. protection.

Xiaomi 14 Ultra Camera

A very impressive setup

Xiaomi 14 Ultra with Ultra Photography Grip (Image credit – PhoneArena)

THE Xiaomi 14 Ultra comes with the new Sony LYT-900 sensor. It measures 1″, which is quite large for a smartphone and typically found in compact cameras. Sony's new LYT sensors feature a new 2-layer transistor, which helps collect more light over shorter periods.

The other 3 cameras – ultra-wide, 3.2x telephoto and 5x telephoto, all have a 50MP Sony IMX858 inside – pretty high-end sensors in their own right, even across the board for each camera. Each of them is covered with Leica lenses and the 3.2x zoom camera has a floating telephoto lens, ensuring better focusing at a closer distance (as low as 10cm).

There's a lot to look forward to here. The main sensor has a continuously variable aperture, ranging from a wide f/1.63, with deep bokeh and lots of incoming light, to a narrow f/4.0 which will allow you to capture scenes where you need to keep more things in focus. .

The camera gets an AI boost when it reaches 30x magnification and above: the algorithm should intelligently recognize objects, reconstruct them, and refine them as you continue to rotate the zoom wheel. Its maximum is 120x.

For camera enthusiasts, the Ultra Photography Grip adds a camera-like grip, hardware buttons for shutter, video, and custom dial, an additional 1,500 mAh battery, and a 67mm adapter for standard camera filters to mount directly onto the camera module. .

On the software side, we have RAW capture as well as AI-enhanced modes: Master Cinema and Master Portrait mode have presets, suggestions and post-processing to get the most out of your photo. Exporting to RAW gives you 16-bit color depth and 16 HDR exposure steps to play with, all calibrated in partnership with Adobe Labs.

The camera here is more than just a toy and we would love to be able to play with it. The practical area wasn't it, so stay tuned!

Obviously, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 generation 3 will be the dominant processor in Android land, at least for the first half of 2024. And it's here, powering the Xiaomi 14 Ultra uncompromising. The phone itself responds in kind with Xiaomi's proprietary IceLoop cooling system, which should keep things cooler when gaming and shooting videos.

No compromise on memory chips either, because the Xiaomi 14 Ultra comes with UFS 4.0 storage and LPDDR5X RAM – starting at 512GB and 16GB respectively. Information on other variants is not available at this time.

Xiaomi 14 Ultra OS / Android version

MIUI is no more, say hello to HyperOS

Xiaomi is taking a big step forward in several areas: AI, electric vehicles, high-end smartphones. The new HyperOS is meant to be the cornerstone of this developing ecosystem. From the smart home to the smart car to the smartphone, Xiaomi imagines that it all runs on HyperOS and works seamlessly.

Xiaomi wants HyperOS AI to learn from your lifestyle and be proactive and helpful. For example, if you turn on the same smart lamp at a specific time and with a specific brightness setting, it may start doing this on its own. The same can be applied to air conditioners, air purifiers, your smart TV, and music playback.

Sharing files on Xiaomi devices is supposed to be as simple as drag and drop, and the workflow should move seamlessly from phone to tablet to the big screen.

THE Xiaomi 14 Ultra has a 5,000mAh cell – nothing fancy, but still a pretty respectable power bank. Xiaomi promises optimizations for improved longevity. And, even if you manage to dry it out with too much video recording or gaming, it should charge pretty quickly via the 90W HyperCharge Brick or 80W Wireless HyperCharge.

Thus, Ultra is going global. It's fantastic. It seems like a good time to do it too, with a plethora of big improvements in the camera department and the super solid Snapdragon 8 generation 3 chipset. As you might guess, we're hopeful and excited that it can deliver the top-notch photography and videography that Xiaomi promises. All that's left to do is hang in there and wait for the tests!